Always Looking Foward
by xxHawkeye
Summary: The evolution of the romance between Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore. I suck at summaries but please give it a chance!


**I've had this plot in my head for a couple years and wrote down the first chapter sometime in December but never thought to publish it until today. I hope you guys will enjoy this story! Please feel free to review and favor :) **

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Albus Dumbledore waited for the first years to arrive, they were late. He could hear groans and complaints coming from the Great Hall, the students were hungry and on a normal day, the feast would be on its way. Today was not a normal day; it was raining hard. The first years normally arrived by boat, but this year, due to the weather, Headmaster Dippet decided it would be best to get to the castle by carriage. What was taking them so long? Dumbledore checked his watch again deciding it was time to check out what was taking them so long the doors opened and the first years came in with the Game Keeper.

''Sorry Professor, the Thestrals refused to pull the carriages when it started to hail, the ice was almost as big as a Quaffle. Anyhow had to arrive on boats. One of the kids fell in, took a minute to get him out'' said Ogg, the Game Keeper. Dumbledore smiled and turned to the students while Ogg made his way to his seat at the staff table.

''Welcome to Hogwarts!'' started Dumbledore with a smile, ''I hope the boat ride wasn't too bad for you and that you'll enjoy your stay with us.'' A couple students smiled back at him, while others raised an eye brow. ''Now, I am sure you are all hungry, but before you may take your seats, you will need to wait to be sorted. There are four houses; Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. While you are here, your house will be like home, something like your family. Triumphs will you earn points, while any rule breaking will lose you house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will be awarded the House Cup! Follow me please!''

He could hear the first years whispering, wondering which house they would be in. Dumbledore wondered which of these students would be impressing him; every year there was always a first year student who impressed him. He never favored them, but he did do all he could and called in a few favors to help them in their respective careers. As they got to the front of the hall, Dumbledore started to read the list of names. He read the names and put the hat on their heads and then watched them as they headed off to their new houses. None of these students had caught his attention, they all seemed the same but Dumbledore knew he shouldn't judge on the first day.

''Minerva McGonagall'' said Dumbledore loudly. A girl moved forward, she was small with long raven hair and big green eyes. She sat down and put on the hat. A minute passed, and then another and another. After a good five minutes of complete silence, the Sorting Hat yelled out ''GRYFFINDOR!''. A loud cheer was heard from the Gryffindor table as she made her way towards her seat.

As the sorting was over, Dumbledore took his place beside the Headmaster. The Headmaster got up and the hall fell silent, ''We've waited long enough to eat, so tuck in!'' he said as all kinds of foods appeared on all five tables. Students cheered as they dug in, finally eating after waiting for so long. Chatter started up as new students got to know their house mates and old friends sharing their summer adventures.

Dumbledore looked at the Gryffindor table, and immediately found the young girl who was a hat stall. He had witnessed a hat stall 8 years ago, the young boy was sorted into Ravenclaw instead. He observed her closer and a small smile appeared on his lips; instead of fraternizing with the rest of her house, she was reading a book while eating. She looked up at turned her head towards the Staff table where she made eye contact with Dumbledore. He smiled at her, and rose his glass to her. She smiled back and nodded her head. In that instant, Dumbledore felt a connection to the young girl.

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First day of classes was always something to look forward to. Dumbledore explained to the first years what Transfiguration was, the rules in his classroom, and then set them with the task of transfiguring a match into a needle. Rarely did first years achieve this on the first day. Initially, it was a simple task, students got to start practicing magic the first day, but Dumbledore used this to assess where his students were, if they were to have trouble or if they were going to get through his classes.

The bell rung and the first years arrived. McGonagall seated herself in front of Dumbledore's desk. He smiled at her and got up, going around his desk to lean against the front of it. He waited for the students to be settled in and to quiet down before speaking. ''Good morning! I am Professor Dumbledore, your Transfiguration teacher. Transfiguration is a branch of magic that is both complex and dangerous. If not done right, the caster will have consequences. As your teacher, I will guide you through your classes, through your obstacles and hopefully by the end of your first year, you will be able to do this'' he tapped his wand lightly against a mouse, turning it into a tissue box. The class aww'ed and clapped as he turned the tissue box back into a mouse. ''Before we start, I will warn you; I will not tolerate any foolishness in my classroom. I am all for showing off what you know, but I will not tolerate spells used against other students, nor will I tolerate foolish wand waving that will end up in harming oneself or a classmate. Anyone foolish enough to not follow the rules will be given detention and will be leave my class and not return.'' The students looked at one another, trying to decide if their teacher meant what he said or not, ''I can see some of you doubt me, I warn you now; I will not tolerate foolishness and the culprit will be removed from my class.''

After his speech, Dumbledore waved his wand and a couple boxes of matches floated down the aisles, ''each of you will take one match'' he instructed. The students took their match and waited for further instructions. Dumbledore taught them the spell before demonstrating what he wanted the students to do. After a few minutes of enunciating with them, he let them begin, walking around slowly to show the students what they were doing wrong.

Too many of them were having difficulties, only a handful had managed to change the color of their match. He walked around slowly when he realised that the young girl was reading her book instead of trying to transfigure her match. Moving to stand beside her, he cleared his voice. She looked up, ''Ms. McGonagall, is there a reason why you are not doing the work that is assigned to you?'' he asked, feeling slightly disappointed in this young girl that had caught his attention the previous night. She closed her book and brought it against her, showing her teacher a needle on her desk. He raised an eye brow at her and changed it back into a match before asking her to do the spell once more. She took out her wand and performed the spell; the match turned into a needle. ''10 points to Gryffindor'' he said with a smile, feeling extremely proud of his new pupil. He gave her a box of matches, ''change these into needles. Once you are done, take another box and change them as well'' he said and moved on. He looked back to his pupil, pleased that she had put her book away and had started to change the matches with no effort.

Dumbledore wasn't pleased with his class; except McGonagall, nobody had managed to change their needles. The few that had change the color had somehow burned their match to a crisp. He stood before his class, ''ladies and gentlemen, you have tried but perhaps not your best. Ms. McGonagall is the only one in this class to have achieved the given task, not only turning a single match into a needle but also changing three boxes of matches. For that Ms. McGonagall, I award Gryffindor 20 points. For homework, yes there is homework'' he said as students groaned at the mention of homework, ''you will practice the spell. Tomorrow we will try again, and hopefully someone else will have managed the task at hand. Off you go'' he said. The class gathered their books and left.

He sat down and smiled, proud that a student had shown great aptitude in his class. Ever since he had become a teacher, only two students had managed to turn their matches into needles, but only once. Ms. McGonagall had gone above those students and changed three boxes of matches. He himself had only managed two boxes on his first day. 'There is something about her' he thought, 'I have a good feeling about this girl'.

Lunch couldn't come fast enough; he spent half a class helping his third year students find a missing toad, then he had to deal with half of the girls of his class who were crying over changing their beloved pets into goblet. Not feeling up to being in the Great Hall, Dumbledore opted for the staff lounge where he met up with other teachers. Smiling, he sat beside Galatea, the professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts. ''Galatea'' he greeted, she smiled at him, ''how was your first day?'' she asked. Dumbledore sighed, ''second period was wasted. The young second year Hufflepuff girls refused to change their pets into goblets, they thought it hurt the animal. Spent half the class trying to get them to stop crying. As for the other half of the class, Longbottom lost his toad again, and thanks to a spell he used on his toad last year, we couldn't use magic to locate it'' he said. Galatea chuckled lightly, ''seems as if you've had a tough morning'' she said, ''what about your first years?'' she asked. ''Same as usual, none of them managed to change their matches into needles, except for one girl'' he said, ''Minerva McGonagall?'' asked Galatea as she turned to look at him. His smile said it all, ''100 perfect needles'' he said. She rose her eye brows and smiled, ''better than you if I recall correctly'' she said. Dumbledore laughed, ''how did you know?'' Galatea shook her head, ''she's the only one who was able to produce a damn good Knockback Jinx. Knocked me off my feet twice in a row. She's quick and grasps the concept of the course easily'' she explained. Dumbledore smiled when he heard the news, feeling that he had been right about the girl; she was going to be great.

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He couldn't wait for the first years to arrive. He had thought about it over night and decided that he would give a different task to McGonagall, to see where she stood. The first years arrived and settled down. ''I hope all of you have been practicing the spell, today we resume what we had started yesterday; you will change your match into a needle'' he waved his wand and the match boxes made its way through the aisles. ''Ms. McGonagall, I have a different task for you. This will be a little harder than yesterday but I have confidence that you will achieve it by the end of the class.'' Dumbledore took a small jar off his desk and put it on hers; there were a dozen beetles in the jar, crawling over one another to get out. ''Be careful when you open the jar, they don't like being in there. You will change these beetles into buttons. Any kind you like, as long as it is a button'' he explained. He then explained the spell and demonstrated before leaving her to it.

As the previous day, he made his round slowly through the aisles, happy to see that these first years actually did do their homework. A couple students had managed to turn their matches into something gray. It wasn't a needle, it wasn't a match but something in between the two. It was still a good start. He let them continue and decided to return to his star pupil. She was reading her book once more, all beetles had been transfigured into buttons. He smiled and headed over to her, ''well done Ms. McGonagall'' he said as he examined the buttons. She somehow had changed the beetles into different kinds of buttons, ''20 points to Gryffindor'' he said before bringing her more beetles to practice on. By the end of the class, she had mastered the spell and had transfigured over 25 beetles.

It wasn't unheard of, there were many teachers who favored particular students. Dumbledore never really had a favorite student, preferring to equally favor his students, but this young girl had changed all of that. She had become his favorite student at the end of her second day, and by the end of the first week, she was the favorite student of all teachers. They all praised her intelligence, how good she was with spells and wand work, how well she did her homework. None praised her more than Dumbledore, who favored her more than any teacher, without showing it much. Each task that she was given impressed him more and more. He became even more impressed when she let down Slughorn when he tried to recruit her into his Slug Club. Every night he stared at the ceiling in his chambers and tried to find new challenges for his star pupil, but no matter what he brought her, she always achieved them in the first 30 minutes of class. He was proud and greatly impressed by this young girl who had an iron will. 'She will achieve greatness one day' he thought to himself before closing his eyes and letting himself fall asleep.

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**What did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Should I restart it or continue it? I'll let you guys be the judge! :p Comments are always appreciated :)**

**As for my other stories, I will continue them when I have the chance; school is starting again in less than 10 days, I'm working all week and don't have much time to update but I will update this story as well as my other stories when I get the chance, which hopefully will be soon! :)**


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